UK banking giant HSBC will be the first high-street lender to launch an app next year that aggregates bank accounts.
Customers will be able to add accounts from up to 21 different banks and see all of them in one place.
HSBC said the app uses “simplified” language to help customers better manage their finances and stay on top of their loans, mortgages and savings.
Users will also be able to use filters to categorise their spending.
The move comes ahead of new UK banking regulations, which will be introduced in January.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) hopes that the new measures will protect customers and help smaller fintech firms compete with established banks.
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By GlobalDataUnder the so-called Payment Services Directive 2, banks will be required to open access to their customers’ data to third party non-banking firms.
Raman Bhatia, head of digital at HSBC in the UK and Europe, said:
This app speaks to what is happening in banking right now. The (European) regulator is shaking up what they see to be a very moribund banking sector.
“This joined-up view of your money is just the starting point for new features that will be added to the Beta platform over the coming months,” he added.
HSBC will trial the app in late October with 10,000 of its existing UK customers.
Becky Moffat, head of personal banking at HSBC, said in a statement Thursday:
Customers now bank at home, on the bus, at work and even in bed, but managing money is still too often a complex and complicated task.
“Through our beta app we want to give our customers a complete and joined-up view of their financial life and make it easier for them to choose confidently, taking the hassle out of checking dozens of statements and manually calculating what’s left,” she added.
HSBC is spending $2.1bn to upgrade its global digital services over the next few years.